Norris ready to carry title battle on for 2025: 'Learned a lot from Max'
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Lando Norris could win his fourth Grand Prix of the season in Abu Dhabi, and more importantly, that could secure McLaren's first constructors' title since the 1998 season. However, the Briton wants more than to just win constructors' championships.
Lando Norris was Max Verstappen's main contender in the 2024 season. After the Miami GP, McLaren could find extra performance with their update package. After many hard-fought battles, the Dutchman proved to be too consistent for the Briton, as he was crowned as champion in Las Vegas.
Norris happy with lessons from 2024
Norris said he could learned a lot thanks to fighting Verstappen on track. The Briton has been pushed to the limit by the champion this year.
"I think the one thing I've learned this year is probably to believe in myself a bit more," Norris said after earning his fourth victory this year. "I've certainly not come out on top as often as I would have liked in certain moments as a driver, especially in my fights against Max. As much as it hurts sometimes, I'm probably happy about it now that I'm going to go into next season knowing that I can fight."
Norris usually remains self-critical about his performances. However, the Briton feels he has already made a huge step. "I know myself and I know more and better than anyone what I need to improve on, where I'm not strong enough, where I'm strong enough. I'm always open for criticism, things like that, but I'm the one who knows better than the others. So not in an arrogant way or a selfish way, but I know that I have to improve in a lot of areas and certain things. And I feel like I've already done that quite a lot in the last three, four, five races."
Norris wants to be competitive from the start in 2025
After securing the constructors' title, there is one missing from the Briton's collection. Norris is targetting objective in 2025. "This is my goal. This is our goal as a team. We want to win the Constructors’. We want to win the Drivers’ next year. I made my mistakes this year, but I've learned a lot, and I've learned a lot from Max and my competitors around me. As much as I'm happy now, I'm excited to get next year going," Norris concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Jeroen Immink
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